Method of and apparatus for handling and tempering glass



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D. 'G. MERRILL Filed Nov. 25, 1939 Jan. 26, 1943.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING AND TEMPERING GLASS .A H H M Huh HHH HH uv H HPHHHUHH H Huh-b ..1 4L FYI/WWW a 7 w 5 4 A a a 9 2 A Iii-c7 72 e55 WWQ Patented Jan. 26, 1943 METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR HAN- DLIN G AND TEMPERING GLASS e Donald G. Merrill, West Hartford, Conn., assignor to Hartford-Empire Com a corporation .0! Delawa pany, Hartford, Coma,

Application November 25, 1939, Serial No. 306,086

(Cl.v 49.--45) 4 Claims.

The present invention; relates to methods ft and apparatus for handling; and tempering glass bottles, jars and other hollow glassware having neck finishes, such .as are formed by neck rings in the usual practice of manufacturing.

In tempering glassware of the class above referred to, it is important that meansv be provided for supporting the ware with the least possible contact therewith an the least interference with the controlled application of the chilling medium to all surfaces of the glass. It is also important that the ware be maintained in axial alignment with an internal cooling nozzle which, of necessity, is small in cross section, having to enter the article through a restricted opening, and which nozzle after entering the ware, must distribute the chilling medium accurately in a selected pattern.

In ware of the character under consideration, there is a tendency for the pressure of the chilling-medium introduced into the ware to build up because of the relatively small space available for exhaust passages.

It is an object of the present invention to provide suitable method and means for centering and for firmly and accurately supporting the ware by its finish with a minimum of contact with the ware, and for introducing an internal cooling nozzle axially into the ware when so supported.

A further object is to provide a head for supporting and tempering glassware of the kinds mentioned, providing in combination, centering tongs adapted to grip the ware by its finish, a locking member for contacting the rim of the bottle coacting with the tongs to lock and firm- 1y hold the 'ware in true axial alignment with an internal cooling nozzle, a nozzle for conducting air, gas or other chilling medium to the interior of the ware, and passages in the head connected respectively to a source of chilling medium under pressure, and to a means for accelcrating the exhaust of spent medium from the ware.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following specification and drawing, in which one embodiment of my invention is shown tpartly in elevation and partly in vertical sec-.

ion.

The form of apparatus here shown consists of a hand-operated device evolved in connection with research work on the tempering of bottles and jars. It involves novel elements and combinations which have proven or value in connection with such tempering, and which have been included in. refinedi and improved. form in apparatus shown and described in. an application. of

greater details of the uses to which the present invention is applicable.

Referring to the drawing, a suitable coupling ll secured to a standard or support (not shown) receives a downwardly extending tube l2 having a fiange I3 at its lower end, to which is detachably connected at perforate member l4, preferably of transite or other insulating material, which is adapted to contact the rim of the glassware 15 when the same is supported and held by its finish in the tong fingers l6, H.

The tong fingers are carried by cars It and I9 at the lower end of a tube 20 which is screwed into a collar 2i. The collar 2| is attached to a ring 22 located in a groove 23 in the tube i2. By rotating the collar 2| while the tube 20 is prevented from rotating therewith but may move axially relative to the collar, as may be done by manual action or by the use of any suitable known means (none shown), the tong fingers may be adjusted toward or away from the member It. This will adjust the vertical distance between the member I4 and the plane at which the tong fingers, when closed, will grip the neck portion of a bottle or similar article. Bottles or similar articles having external beads, grooves or other raised portions or depressions on their neck finish portions at different distances from the rims or open ends thereof may thus be gripped by the tong fingers at places best adapted for support of the articles so that the rims or open ends of such articles will be held firmly against the member M. This adjustment is independent of any change in the extent of opening and c1osing movements of the tong fingers and thus may be utilized to adapt the device to releasably support bottles and other similar articles having diflerent types of neck finish portions irrespective of whether or not such neck finish portions are of the same outer diameter or of difierent outer diameters or external dimensions. The tong finger l6 may be rigidly supported from the ear l8, while the finger I! may be pivotally mounted on car I 9 through lever 24. A ring 25 is slidably mounted on the tube 20. In its lower position, shown, it serves to hold the finger I! in ware-gripping position from which it may be moved when the ring is moved upwardly on the tube 20.

Within, concentric with and spaced from the inverting the entire head, so that heating 2 tube I2 is a tube 26, to the lower end of which is detachably connected an internal cooling nozzle 21, here shown as asimple tube, but which may be of other types such, for example, as those disclosed in the aforesaid application of Thomas D. Green. The tube 26 extends upwardly beyond the coupling ll through a stufling boxv 28, perforations in the bracket 29 and a collar 30, in the latter of which it is adjustably held as by set screw 3!. The tube is held against upward movement by its weight and by the clip 32. At its upper end, the tube 26 is connected by a flexible hose 33 to a pipe 34, and thence to a source of compressed air or other chilling medium through a valve 35 provided with an operating lever 36.

The pipe 34 also communicates through a valve 31 with a nozzle 38 for projecting compressed air through a. Venturi passage in a Venturi tube 35 into an exhaust pipe 40 which is connected with the tube 39. The Venturi tube 39 is connected \by a. flexible hose 4| and suitable pipe connections to the coupling II. The latter communicates with the annular exhaust passage 42 formed by the tubes [2 and 26, which passage in turn communicates through the perforation in the member It with the interior of the glassware l5. The arrangement is such that the air or cooling fluid supplied to the interior of the article l5 will be sucked therefrom to and through the Venturi tube 33 when air under pressure is discharged from the nozzle 39 through such Venturi tube to the exhaust pipe 40.

In theme of my invention it is contemplated that an article of glassware be brought to a uniform temperature above its strain point.- Either before or after the ware is brought to this it is gripped at its finish by the tongs and locked in properly centered position. Such support facilitates the heating and/or cooling, as it leaves nearly all of the surfaces of the glass condition,

freely exposed and out of contact with means which will adversely affect the heating and/or cooling.

A. Wadman, No. 2,066,283. The extent to which the nozzle is projected into the glassware may be regulated, as heretofore pointed out, and such regulation may be employed as a means for determining the character of the application of cooling fluid to the interior walls of the ware.

By means provided and above described, the prompt and complete evacuation of the spent chilling medium is assured, whereby the chilling is made more effective in bottles providing relatively small spaces through which such spent gases may escape.

I contemplate that the device shown is to be employed in connection with suitable external chilling means, though under some circumstances these may be' omitted, and the chilling of the exterior may be eflected-simply by radiation.

If desired, the coupling ll may be pivotally mounted'on its support and means provided for and/or cooling of the ware may take place while the ware is supported in inverted position.

This end of the latter article, a supporting may prove convenient in connection with certain types of furnaces or when the cooling medium comprises a liquid in finely divided state.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. The method of tempering a bottle which comprises discharging compressed cooling air into the space within the bottle at a place nearer to the bottom than to the neck portion of the bottle while the bottle is at a temperature above its strain point and concurrently applying suction to the interior of the bottle at the neck end thereof.

2. A combined bottle supporting and internal cooling mechanism comprising a vertically disposed tubular supporting member, bottle centering and supporting tong fingers, means mounted on said tubular supporting member for supporting said tong fingers for closing and opening moverr'ients toward and away from the downwardly extended axial line of said tubular supporting member at a plane located below the lower end of the latter, said tong fingers being closable to grip and openable to release the neck of a bottle located directly beneath and in line with said tubular member, steadying means carried by said tubular member at the lower end of the latter to contact with the rim of the bottle that has been gripped by said tong fingers, means for'efiecting relative vertical movements between said means for supporting said tong fingers and said tubular supporting member to adjust the vertical distance between the planes at which the steadying means and the tong fingers, respectively, contact said bottle, a cooling fluid discharge nozzle extending vertically through said steadying means and the opening in the neck portion of said bottle into the interior of the latter, and means extending vertically through said tubular supporting member and supported thereby for supporting said nozzle and for supplying cooling fluid under pressure thereto. 3. In apparatus for supporting and applying a cooling fluid to the interior of a bottle or like structure comprising three vertically disposed concentric tubular members connected to permit relative vertical adjustment between any two of them and to prevent accidental relative vertical movements members, the innermost of said tubular members constituting a cooling fluid supply pipe, a cooling fluid discharge nozzle operatively connected with said innermost tubular member at the lower end of the latter and in axial alignment therewith, anannular bottle rim contact member attached to the lower end of the intermediate tubular member in concentric encircling relation to an upper portion of said nozzle, and cooperative tong fingers carried below its neck finish portion to support said bottle in encircling concentric relation to said discharge nozzle with the rim of the bottle firmly against said bottle rim contact member. 1

4. In apparatus for supporting and applying a cooling fluid to the interior of a bottle or like article, a supporting structure comprising three vertically disposed concentric tubular members connected to permit relative vertical adjustment between any two of them and to prevent accidental relative vertical movements between such members, the innermost of said tubular members constituting a cooling fluid supply pipe, 9. cooling fiuid discharge nozzle operatively connected with said innermost tubular member at the lower and in axial alignment therebetween such by the outermost of said- -three tubular members for gripping a bottle neck with, an annular bottle rim contact member discharge nozzle with the rim of the bottle firmly attached to the lower end of the intermediate tubular member in concentric encircling relation to an upper portion of said nozzle, cooperative tong fingers carried by the outermost of said three tubular members for gripping a bottle neck below its neck finish portion to support said bottle in encircling concentric relation to said against said bottle rim contact member and means operatively connected with the intermediate tubular member for applying suction to the interior-thereof and thence through said bottle rim contact member to "the interior of the bottle.

DONALD G. MERRILL. 

